what's your % of keepers?

Derek Lofgreen · Mar 1, 2007

I just finished a corporate head shot gig. It was a very short shoot, about 15 minutes. My percent of keepers on this one was 55%. I was just wondering if anyone keeps track of what their percentage of keepers is. I would think that large format shooters would have a larger percentage of keepers than say a 35mm shooter like myself.

D.

Monophoto · Mar 1, 2007

Derek -

With all due respect, claiming a 55% "keeper rate" in 35mm sounds like a teen age boy talking about his weekend. Or perhaps my dad talking about his last fishing expedition.

I think a 5% keeper rate in 35mm would be considered outstanding, and for LF, 10-20% would be half decent.

Travis Nunn · Mar 1, 2007

I shoot mostly MF and I'd be happy with about 20% although its usually around 10%

Mark_S · Mar 1, 2007

When shooting roll film, I usually figure pretty good about getting one printable negative per roll which would mean about 3% for 35mm, about 8% on 6x6. My most common format is 4x5, where it is a bit different - about one in 4 shots turns out to be something that I want to print, but I do two exposures of each shot, and if I don't like the way the first neg looks, I can process the second one differently and get another bite at the apple

TheFlyingCamera · Mar 1, 2007

Shooting LF, I feel happy if I get more than 10% that I REALLY want to print and show, and if I get better than 25%, I'm ecstatic. I know that Michael A. Smith claims he has a 100% keeper rate - he says he prints 100% of the negs he shoots. Somehow I find that claim to have 100% perfect clarity of vision to be suspicious, but it's nice to know that someone out there feels they can have that kind of hit rate.

copake_ham · Mar 1, 2007

t_nunn said:
I shoot mostly MF and I'd be happy with about 20% although its usually around 10%

Whew! This and Monophoto's post make me feel a whole lot more adequate!

I got scared when I saw the OP's "keep rate".

BTW: I pretty much "keep" (and nowadays, scan) all my shots (at least as negs) since even the crappy ones have a lesson to teach. But I think by "keepers" you mean one's you consider "good".

I figure 4 to 6 shots on a 36exp 35mm roll is pretty good. I'm so new with MF, I'm just happy if the photo comes out at this point!

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Mar 1, 2007

I find that the notion of keeper is a fluid one for me. I shoot mainly 35mm these days, and what looks like as a keeper one the proof sheet does not end up so a few days later. Even those I print as keepers, after a few weeks I may discard or decide not to care about more. Reciprocally, when I look back on my old stuff I find some. My feeling of satisfaction changes over time, and what I was happy with last month I sometimes feel I could do better now. It's all a learning process in the end.

In terms of metrics, 3-4 shots on a roll are usually interesting enough for me to print at 8x10 size. But after that I let time sediment the ones that endure and those that don't. That reduces the ratio well below one per roll.

Christopher Walrath · Mar 1, 2007

It was about 15% with 35mm. I don't know if MF is making me more deliberate in my exposure process or what, but since I switched to my Mamiya M645J I would say 20 or sometime up to 30 or 35, though only occasionally.

Chuck_P · Mar 1, 2007

With my MF shooting, it is one subject per roll. I get 10 frames as I shoot 6x7. Really it is 9 frames because I leave one frame unexposed to use it for keeping an eye on fb+f levels. This is convenient to me since I can only get 9 6x7 exposures on an 8x10 contact sheet. I vary the perspective, angle, lens and/or shadow placements for each subject. So I get one to two keepers per roll, no problem. I'll say 2 out of 9 per roll for 22%.

Chuck

PatTrent · Mar 1, 2007

It varies. I can't think of a number or percentage right now, but I know that it's higher when I shoot MF than when I shoot 35mm. If I was doing a portrait, it would be 1/12 (for the Hassy) or 1/36 (for the Nikon) because I would print the very best one on the roll.

John McCallum · Mar 1, 2007

For me it varies over time, and with a miriad of factors at the time of photographing and editing later. Not to mention the purpose of the images in the first place.

But looking back at stored negs that I've turned into useful prints, I think around one to two in a hundred. (fwiw).

eddie gunks · Mar 1, 2007

for me it depends on the roll. i shoot a lot of travel photos. it seems that i get many many great images on a particular roll. some rolls are awesome. i get 5-6 (from 10 on 6x7cm) great images.....and then i have some rolls that just suck....all 11! hahahaha!

it is hard to say per roll cause it depends on the subject. i would say on average per 100 rolls shot....hhhhmmmm.....10% or so i think are my best stuff.

eddie

Dug · Mar 1, 2007

I am in the 3-4% range of keepers in MF and LF. However, I only actually throw away half of the non-keepers (usually due to grossly lousy technique on my part). This has served me well - when I revisit my rejects sometimes I find one that "works" and I never realized it before. I just resurrected a non-keeper the other day and printed up a couple 11X14 Ilfochromes. Beautiful! Maybe my tastes have changed and I look at my past work differently now.

I thank my lucky stars I use film so I can reevaluate my progress and reassess my work rather than mashing on the little digital camera garbage can button and having my learning curve disappear forever.

jgjbowen · Mar 1, 2007

I shoot LF almost exclusively. My goal is 5% keepers. I'll likely make fine prints of 7-8% then cull those down to probably less than 5% of the original negatives. With my 35mm, I probably do fine prints of less than 1% of my negatives. Part of that is because if I really think it deserves a fine pirnt at the time of exposure, I'll likely use my 8x10.

Ted Harris · Mar 1, 2007

Hmmm over a liftime of shooting all formats but mostly LF I think my keeper rate is somewhere between 2% and 5%.

BTW, I believe St. Ansel once said his was ~ 3%.

Alex Hawley · Mar 1, 2007

I quit keeping stats; it made me feel like a failure.

film_guy · Mar 1, 2007

If I can get about 5 keepers out of a roll of 36, I'm happy. When I shoot digital, my keepers are like 15 to 20%, but it seems like with film it's lower. Beats the heck out of me.

chrisofwlp · Mar 1, 2007

my keeper rate ranges between 0 %and 1%.

I recently took a M&P workshop and Michael said his was a little over 60%, Paula was boasting upwards of 90%. I was floored.

Christopher Breitenstein

Bill Mitchell · Mar 1, 2007

One keeper per 36 exposure roll (less than 1%) is an unusually good day for me. My keeper rate for Large Format over 50 years is damn near ZERO (somewhat higher if shooting with the Super D Graflex).

bruce terry · Mar 2, 2007

Dug said:
I thank my lucky stars I use film so I can reevaluate my progress and reassess my work rather than mashing on the little digital camera garbage can button and having my learning curve disappear forever.

Dug - Then again many digitites retain every single unsuccessfully-recropped, hypersharpened, warhol-colorized reject they have ever electrified. They don't lose their tracks, they cover them ... then again I reckon that applies to anal-ogers as well.

On subject - in the game for just the fun of it, never motorized and always a spare negative maker - I keep probably 3% of my 35mm and 8x10 work. Of this little pile only half a percent really pleases me. Thus I continually peck-away at the marginal 2.5%. Hopefully the tiny stash I leave behind will mean something to someone, be kept.

Bruce

epatsellis · Mar 2, 2007

for me it depends on format:

35mm 2-3 keepers per roll

6x7 3-4 per roll

4x5 about 30%, as I shoot the same image on both sides of the holder, and develop one side first, just in case...

8x10 about 45% lately, (I shoot both sides of the holder, as I do in 4x5) for some ungodly reason, I spend much more time fussing, futzing and generally dicking around with the 8x10 (I know it's not film cost, I've been shooting lith film for a while, and I still have over 1000 sheets left)

erie

Ole · Mar 2, 2007

What's a keeper?

I keep all my negatives, even the complete and utter failures.

About 80% are usable, 10% good - with any format.

On the other hand I consider 2006 a good year, since I got two pictures that were not only good, but great.

eddym · Mar 2, 2007

Ole said:
What's a keeper?

I keep all my negatives, even the complete and utter failures.

About 80% are usable, 10% good - with any format.

On the other hand I consider 2006 a good year, since I got two pictures that were not only good, but great.

You beat me to it. I quit counting "keepers" -whatever they are- about 20 years ago.
Instead, I tend to think in terms of years, as you mention. 2006 was a pretty decent year for me, too. I made several shots that I am very happy with and have been printed for exhibition. But there have been some years in which I produced nothing really worth "keeping."
In 1989, for example, I made two good shots.

Derek Lofgreen · Mar 2, 2007

Wow, I didn't think this would be such a hot topic! Well, I guess I need to qualify this 55% rate. It was a corporate headshot. It was shot with controlled studio lighting. Of course corporate head shots aren't works of art so the threshold of "keeper" is lower than say a large format landscape or something.

Louie, I was not trying to be smug or anything but that was my percentage for this shoot. Obviously my average is varies a lot from roll to roll. I really enjoy your work by the way. Very nice images. And I wish my fishing keeper rate was that high!

I was thinking now that this has started. What is a keeper? I mean shooting your child's birthday party has a certain level of acceptability to keep an image. What about a shooting a landscape with large format? Or how about the pro fashion shooter, don't they have to have a pretty high average of keepers? And what are their keepers like compared to the birthday party keepers? I guess what I am thinking is that one photographers keep rate may be very high/low just because of what and how they shoot. Not what there ability is, although that is part of it too.

D.

wfe · Mar 2, 2007

I've seen ranges from zero to 50% with my portrait work but I don't really count. My editing is very tough and there are very few that make the cut. Typically there are a few shots that I want out of a shoot and if I get them I'm happy regardless of the numbers.

Cheers,
Bill

what's your % of keepers?

Derek Lofgreen

Monophoto

Travis Nunn

Mark_S

TheFlyingCamera

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copake_ham

Michel Hardy-Vallée

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Christopher Walrath

Chuck_P

PatTrent

John McCallum

eddie gunks

Dug

jgjbowen

Ted Harris

Alex Hawley

film_guy

chrisofwlp

Bill Mitchell

bruce terry

epatsellis

Ole

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eddym

Derek Lofgreen

wfe

what's your % of keepers?

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